Times Op-Ed: The Only Issue That Matters is Stopping Dirty Bomb Attack In NY or DC
This op-ed by Jeff Goldberg is definitely worth a read.
He writes that experts believe that there is a 20-50% chance of a WMD attack on a major American city over the next decade. He is referring to the so-called "dirty bomb." He maintains that A-Q is seeking a weapon and will deploy it when it can. (He says that smuggling it into the US should not be hard; just hide it in a cocaine shipment).
He also points out that the Bush administration has not only done nothing to defend us against an attack but has made things worse. In addition to the pointless slaughter, the Iraq war is also a giant diversion from the real threat. And now the Bush administration is suspending nuclear cooperation with Russia to punish Russia for its intervention in Geogia. Typical idiocy).
Anyway, Goldberg says that the possibility of attack by A-Q is the greatest threat to us all.
Certainly it's a bigger threat than Iran or Hamas which the right likes to scaremonger over. Iran, of course, has no interest in hitting the American homeland and, even if it did, would be deterred by our nuclear arsenal. Hamas is only interested in Israel/Palestine; it is wonderfully parochial in that regard. Nor is it known to be interested in WMD's which, obviously, cannot be used with impunity in an area as small as Israel/Palestine. But A-Q wants us dead and has nothing to lose; nor can we hit back as we can with a state.
But none of this seems to bother the neocons and the rightwingers.
What is wrong with them? Why have they shown themselves to be so consistently pro-Al Qaeda since 9/11? Why did Wolfowitz, Perle and Feith struggle to convince Bush to go after Iraq on 9/12 when the rest of us were going nuts over what A-Q did to our country? Most important, does McCain agree with them?
I just don't agree that an AQ dirty bomb attack is any sort of big threat.
If anyone sets off a dirty bomb in the US it'll probably be an angry white guy. I'm far more worried about more Tim McVeighs than I am about more 9/11s.
September 9, 2008 10:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Couldn't be because MJ lives in one of those upscale D.C. neighborhoods which are also home to the most well-known Jewish neocons and therefore prime targets?
The man is beneath despicable.
September 9, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, you are a troll and beneath contempt. Just wanted everyone else to know it too, though it's obvious by the wanton ignorance of your comment.
September 9, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
lapiltz,
he's the most vicious, insulting person I've ever encountered online, and the thing is, its all unwarranted.
He actually seems to go out of his way to be vicious.
September 9, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
And you claim to hate the "America haters."
When you are the best example I've seen yet.
September 9, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
o2u,
Of course I agree with you that it isn't the only thing that matters, but as so often seems to happen with you, you are mistaking the opinions of the post MJ highlighted for his own opinions. You need to work on your reading comprehension skills.
September 9, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
@ nedbalzar
Perhaps. But MJ retitled Goldberg's essay and completely distorted its meaning. For example, Goldberg, in his lead paragraph says
That's America. Not rich, cowardly, selfish yidland.
September 9, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
No wonder you love this Adminstration.
Propangandists and bigots do love to promote the idea that the next terrorist strike will be a petting zoo in Iowa, as revealed by the DHS allocation of resources.
September 9, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
@ diachronic
How about the Long Beach or Los Angeles harbors? Hollywood? The Golden Gate Bridge? Glen Canyon or Hoover Dams? One of the big General Motors of Ford plants in the Industrial heartland? Google or Microsoft or some prime area of Silicon Valley?
You pathetic, ignorant rube...and you think you're smart.
September 9, 2008 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since you read with a Goebbels-like mind, your interpretation makes perfect sense.
September 9, 2008 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
offensivetoyou says;
"blockquote> That's America. Not rich, cowardly, selfish yidland.
"yidland"? What's yidland?
September 9, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
should read;
offensivetoyou says;
"yidland"? What's yidland?
September 9, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
offensivetoyou says;
"blockquote> That's America. Not rich, cowardly, selfish yidland.
"yidland"? What's yidland?
September 9, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
An excellent question.
We will see if he is capable of owning up to his racism.
September 9, 2008 4:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
@ diachronic
Yidland is home country for rich, cowardly selfish yids. I'm entitled to say that because I am a yid - but not rich, cowardly or selfish...
Neither am I blinded by political correctness...
There are terrible people of all racial, ethnic and religious groups; white trash, trailer trash, spics, beaners, niggers, ragheads...and, yes, kikes.
Harsh, and often unfair and insensitive to others of the same group, to call them out but sometimes justified.
September 9, 2008 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
offensivetoyou,
yes, but where is yidland located?
September 9, 2008 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
@ johnwjackass
The context answers that, doesn't it?
Or, using only a little brain power, one could easily conclude that it has no exact physical location, that it describes certain neighborhoods, or parts of neighborhoods where such people live, and does so only to the extent it describes their execrable behavior.
I know you're stupid...but not that stupid. You're just trying to bait me. To what end? What beliefs are you trying to attribute to me?
September 9, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
offensivetoyou,
but where are these neighborhoods? Do you live in one of these neighborhoods?
September 10, 2008 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
@ johnwjackass
No. I don't. The only such neighborhood I know of is the one surrounding MJ's house. I'm sure there are others.
September 10, 2008 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
o2u,
Your attacks on M.J. are unwarranted. And do you no credit. It's possible to disagree without being disagreeable. If you must be disagreeable, be funny.
Remember: original sin is much more enjoyable than the ho-hum conventional kind.
September 9, 2008 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
@ z2v
I can't be funny about MJ. I wish I could.
September 9, 2008 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
offensivetoyou says;
No you don't.
September 9, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry pal, the despicable one is Goldberg.
He's among the war-floggers. In 2002, he helped push the meme that Doug Feith(aka "the stupidest fucking guy on the planet" - Gen. T. Franks) was hawking - that Saddam Hussein was a genocidal maniac who absolutely positively had nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that he was about to use against us RIGHT NOW and we better invade before it's tool late!!11!!!!
http://www.radaronline.com/features/2007/01/betting_on_iraq_5.php
This is just the next verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a whole lot stupider.
September 10, 2008 8:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
When I saw the headlines about Bush severing the nuclear cooperation agreement as a "punishment," I became irate, as I usually do when I see the Administration inflicting yet another incredibly dangerous stupidity on the nation. To the point, I mean, of actually not reading the stories. Because I am well aware of how dangerously stupid it is, and I realize we are stuck with anti-American incompetents at least until January, and possibly for all eternity if the ignorant hothead McCain takes over.
Bush's incredible negligence is a topic that books have been written about, and that will be the marvel of wondering historians for millenia, amazed that while no Republic could protect Rome from Caligula, we could have what purports to be a functional State and a Constitution, and yet neither could prevent us from electing Caligula twice.
Thank you for writing this, M.J. Despite raising my blood pressure.
September 9, 2008 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
September 9, 2008 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Do I think Russia should be rewarded. NO. Let's kill some of their sled dogs. That'll shut them up.
September 9, 2008 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, on Sept. 13th many people were wrong about the source of the attacks.
It's a good thing we didn't go off half cocked on 9/14 and retaliate against Iraq when we didn't know the perpetrators, yet.
September 9, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
September 9, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
shooter242 says:
September 9, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's keep things in proportion - we are each far more likely to die in a car crash, from heart disease or cancer, than from any type of terrorist action. Not to dismiss that possibility, but we can't allow it to define us or our government.
September 9, 2008 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
The people who have made this the defining feature of our so-called 'nation' are the people who work overtime selling it to us, manufacturing phony threats while letting real ones multiply.
The Administration does use the dangers they promote as a political instrument. They did not make mistakes going into Iraq. The terrorist training ground established there serves somebody's purposes admirably.
By the way, did anyone catch the video from AQ accusing the U.S. and Iran being in cahoots?
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080909/NEWS07/809090372
One truly has to marvel at the disinformation economy we live in.
September 9, 2008 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are we sure it's not Jonah?
September 9, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
We certainly need smarter and cooler heads to prevail in order to marshal the international effort it will take to deal with the terrorism problem for the foreseeable future.
That certainly doesn't mean McCain and his Bridge To Armageddon ticket (with his 'Jesus Camp' vice presidential nominee)!
After a while, with adequate international cooperation (in absence of fear of one's country being invaded by and/or conspired against by the USA), the current round of terrorism will recede, as did the Baader-Meinhoff and Red Army Brigade terrorism as well as the Japanese cult terrorism.
Just quit invading countries already!
Quit propping up nefarious dictators, the oil variety or otherwise!
Stop encircling Russia like it's the Cold War - everyone knows the neo-chrons just want Russia's oil and gas! Get over it already. Didn't we rob Russia blind enough under Clinton?! Half a trillion dollars worth of their resources?!
Be brave enough to be a nation like everyone else, fellow USAers, who have to live within their own means; and quit exploiting and manipulating other nations. It's wrong and it doesn't work any longer! Be smart. Walk softly and carry big diplomacy.
Muscle we already have! We've done it to DEATH!
September 9, 2008 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
"...adequate international cooperation" is the only reality-based solution to non-national terrorist threat.
The Taliban - at the moment joined-at-the-hip to AQ - is present in, for all practical purposes, every country in the world. Their goal is, to quote them, to rule the world. Nut cakes for sure but thanks to Saudi and other un-named Emirate zillionaires, they're financially able to do a helluvalot of hit-and-miss damage.
There is a powerful faction in the Republican Party (think Bolton etal) who has been campaigning for years for the dissolution of the UN, apparently replacing it with no other international body. It can be assumed that if we return the Republicans to power, at our peril adequate international cooperation will be off the table.
September 9, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Re: Didn't we rob Russia blind enough under Clinton?!
If anyone robbed Russia blind in the 9os it was their own oligarchs, most if them former Communist apparachiks whi came out of the events of 1991 well placed to feather their nests.
September 9, 2008 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
BULLSH*T SCAREMONGERING.
Actually, anyone who actually knows something about nuclear physics would laugh his head off about the new "scare" of the "Dirty Bomb".
Here are some FACTS:
This is good for a hollywood plot line, but in reality there are much more ORDINARY things to worry about which we're totally ignoring -- like the state of our transportation infrastructure.
September 9, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
The fear and panic created should not be underestimated. The fear and panic created by 9/11 will be a walk in the park compared to what would result from a "nuclear" dirty bomb detonation. The average citizen isn't going to understand the difference, and those who would take advantage of the situation to cement themselves into positions of power aren't going to explain it to them, they're going to use it to generate even more fear and panic. A dirty bomb would be likely to turn America into a police state for the foreseeable future.
September 9, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
BULLSH*T SCAREMONGERING.
Actually, anyone who actually knows something about nuclear physics would laugh his head off about the new "scare" of the "Dirty Bomb".
Here are some FACTS:
This is good for a hollywood plot line, but in reality there are much more ORDINARY things to worry about which we're totally ignoring -- like the state of our transportation infrastructure.
September 9, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink